The main character of the starship's first flight was replaced. What is the strength of the new combination of Raptor configuration?

The starship's first flight changes the protagonist.

B4+S20 - this golden combination of Starship is exiting the center stage, giving way to a newer and stronger new combination of Starship. On March 22, Musk delivered the news in a group of interactive tweets and revealed some hardcore information.

▲Lao Ma first responded to the article by CNBC reporter Michael Schatz, which claimed: "SpaceX plans to account for 65% of the global launch payload this year, and it may increase to about 70% with the increase in launch demand. So this is not a big change. These figures do not include Starship. Roughly speaking, SpaceX's launch capacity per launch is 16 tons x 50 launches = 800 tons. Other countries in the world are less than 400 tons (mostly China)."

We know that since 2020, SpaceX has accounted for more than half of the world's annual launch payload mass. With the significant increase in the number of launches and the addition of Starship to the launch mission queue, this share will continue to expand.

▲The next tweet from Lao Ma is the key point: "The first Starship orbital flight will use the second-generation Raptor engine because it is more powerful and reliable. The sea level thrust can reach 230 tons or about 500,000 pounds.

Next month we will build 39 Raptors that can be used for launch, and after another month of assembly and integration, we hope to conduct orbital test flights in May. "Obviously, this tweet revealed several explosive materials: ① The first orbital flight of the Starship will use the second-generation Raptor (Raptor V2).

This means abandoning the first generation of Raptors and the first flight of B4+S20. You know, starting from the first successful 150-meter jump of Starhopper in 2019, including various ignitions and flights of SN5, SN6, SN8, SN9, SN10, SN11, SN15, and B3, until S20 underwent 4 static ignition tests, all of which used the first generation of Raptors (Raptor V1). Lao Ma suddenly said that the first generation of Raptors would be abandoned, which of course means abandoning the B4+S20 Starship combination and no longer performing the first test flight. In order to further clarify this major news, another reporter, Tesmanian columnist Evelyn, asked directly: "Will Starship S20 and Super Heavy B4 still perform orbital flights?" Lao Ma replied with one word: New. It is obvious that the new combination is activated and the original combination is abandoned.

② "Next month, 39 Raptors will be built and ready for launch."

This sentence means the new configuration of Starship Raptor: 6 for Starship + 33 for Super Heavy. The first orbital flight of Starship directly used the Super Heavy rocket equipped with 33 Raptors to take off. In other words, the launch thrust is 7590 tons, which is 40% more than the B4. The total thrust of the B4 equipped with 29 first-generation Raptors is only 5365 tons. However, this is still a lot more than the 3976 tons thrust of the SLS first flight version.

③ "After another month of assembly and integration, we hope to conduct an orbital test flight in May." Of course, this is purely "Musk's timetable" - the usual optimistic, fast-forward first flight schedule. It is probably used as a time reference line.

So the question is: When will the more reliable Starship make its first flight? Which Starship will make its first flight? Why did they change the B4+S20 after preparing for more than half a year? What is Musk's underlying reason? How big is the difference between the new Starship combination and the old one? Please refer to the follow-up article of Three-Body Gravitational Waves for details.